Tag: road trip

Life is being cancelled

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Adelaide Cup

Monday 9th March was a public Holiday. Well, it was in South Australia – no where else, only South Australia.  What was the occasion you may well ask and I shall tell you it was such a holiday that no one outside of Adelaide really cares too much about – it was the Adelaide Cup Horse Race. It’s a Group 2 Horse Race, not in the same League as the Melbourne Cup, which is a Group 1 Race. Still, it was a long weekend and whatever the reason, quite acceptable.   Andrew and I decided on a  Road Trip to Port Lincoln, about 280 klms from here. We did ask John, but he was working. The drive down was uneventful with surprisingly little traffic. Yes I did take the camera with me but  there is not a lot to see and not much of any great interest since  this is mainly farming country – from the arid lands to the arable lands. However it was interesting to note that the street we were driving on in Port Lincoln were under water not so long ago.- in the flooding rain that followed the bushfires.

On arrival we went directly to Bunnings where we had a wander and a coffee. From there we went to the Tech Store where Andrew bought a new Mouse and I bought a second  64GB Extreme SD for the Camera. Well, yes, we could have bought these things at home, but we didn’t. We had a delayed lunch at Del Giorno’s Restaurant, which Andrew recommended. I had a  Vegetarian Pasta dish, which was very good and  Andrew had a Gourmet Hamburger, which he said was great. I chose a large glass of +Lemonade+  and Andrew a Diet Coke. Sad, I know, but it’s 280  kilms drive to home. One of the highlights for me was to come across an “Inspector Morse” Red Jaguar,  well looked after and in magnificent condition. Just after I took the photograph an

This is not my photograph. I never got to take one.

elderly man got into the car and drove off. The drive back was just as uneventful as the drive down. Yes there are little settlements, Tumby Bay, Arno Bay  Franklin Harbour and Port Neill. All of these are on the coast and the main highway is about 3 – 5 klms inland and thus a straight run from the top of the Eyre Peninsula down to Port Lincoln. A great day out – John would have enjoyed it. Port Lincoln is a busy, bustling town but has a lot of problems with youth crime and youth vandalism. However, I did relearn an important lesson -if you think you would like to do something- do it. Don’t leave it until later because later might be too late. On our way to the restaurant we came across the statue to the great  racehorse, Makybe Diva. I  thought I would like a photograph of that but decided to leave it until after lunch. After lunch, however, two families were having a picnic on the grass around the statue – some people were sitting on the  base and children were climbing over it. I never got my photograph. The name – Makybe Diva – comes from the first two letters of the names of the  five female employees of the owner –  Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane, and Vanessa

I was supposed to be taking John to Adelaide next week. He was going to a concert in Melbourne but was unable to get flights at the times he needed to Adelaide and return, so he asked me to take him down. I would stay in Adelaide for a couple of days. pick him up at the airport and drive home. Yesterday I cancelled the hotel booking as word came through that the Melbourne concert is cancelled. John is not very happy. I will have to go down to Adelaide because I had arranged to do things on the Friday – like go to the RFDS Base to collect things for up here. I still need to do that so I will head down on my own.

Hmmm. Very Interesting

Here in our country town the virus has arrived with one person being tested. The Laura Fair has been cancelled, the Peppercorn Markets have been cancelled but no word of the much larger Unearth Festival which is due here next week being cancelled. And we really should know because  the RFDS Simulator has been booked to come up from Adelaide for this. To date (one week out) the Festival is going ahead as planned. Ah…. 16:43 Saturday14th. At 5pm this afternoon there will be a Council announcement that the Unearth Festival in Ada Ryan Gardens on Saturday 21st and the Colour Run on  Sunday 22nd will both be cancelled. On Monday we will notify RFDS Central Operations that the Simulator will not be required. Perhaps later on in the year when things have settled down, but I don’t see that happening for a while yet. We are living in a very different reality. Annabell was not happy about me driving to Adelaide for no really good reason in the current climate, so to allay her fears I have decided that I really do not need to go to Adelaide at this time.

Road Trip and Ice Cream

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The weather today was a warm 34c. I took the Benji on a small road trip of about 100+ lkms – wandering around the region and ending up having Ice-Cream at the Foreshore Cafe.  He had a small tub I had a Cornetto. Well, we sat outside since we couldn’t go inside in the

Out There!!
Out There!!

cool but that aside, we enjoyed our Ice Cream and it would have been much easier if a certain  someone  hadn’t kept trying to eat the wooden

The Foreshore
The Foreshore

spoon as well as the Ice Cream.   My predictions are going to prove right and already on the first warm to hot day and the flies were ferocious. We finished our Ice Cream and were glad to get back into the car again . A few flies in the car but they went as soon as we started driving with both windows open. Inovation… I brought water but I forgot a container for Benji. Well I did what they did in  “The Lighthorsemen”I took off the Akubra and emptied the water into my hat and he was quite happy to drink it from there. – Yes,  push in the crown to make a bowl and it can hold water.

Just shows how quickly things change – or how media get things wrong – not really sure which at the moment. Yesterday it was announced that at the meeting of shareholders it was agreed that Arrium would be sold as a whole company. Now, this morning it was announced that Molly-Cop is to be sold off to an American company for $1.6 Billion in a separate deal with the funds being used to pay back creditors – about $0.50 in the Dollar. But this is the last I will mention this because it’s all a mess and things change from  day to day. . However, Molly-Cop is being sold (now sold) to  American Industrial Partners – but here again there is confusion in that the “Australian”says $1.2 billion while the Arrium Administrator says $1.6 Billion. But there is still a group of shareholders that  are opposed to Arrium being sold off now that the Iron Ore Prices and the Steel Prices have risen. They want the company to be handed back to the shareholders and that the company continue to trade and thus trade itself back into profit again. Yes well, As they said in “The Castle” – “Tell him he’s Dreaming”. The  idea that we go back to trading and perhaps in a few years go through all this trauma again ( probable)  is not really appealing. The idea, I thought,  is to mitigate the pain, not increase its severity whilst prolonging it. But as I said, last mention.

He was there too.
He was there too.

Thursday and I head off to Mount Gambier. First stop is Adelaide where I will stay overnight before heading off to M.G. on Friday morning. After the warm and sunny 34c the temperature crashed and it has been cold for the last couple of days. This morning, when I took BJ out I  put on a heavy jacket as protection from a cold, biting wind. In our walk there is a section of ground that I walk across to take me from one area to another. I do not know why, but when we went onto that ground, about 15+ feet –  Benji goes bottom up, head down, digs in his paws and will not move. It could be the yellow, stubble grass(?) that hurts his paws, but he will not move and no amount of talking or pulling will make him move. Well that’s the way I want to go so I do what any daddy would do, I lift him up and carry him across. Well, you know what  they say – He aint heavy, he’s my brother”  o:)  That apart, it’s a good walk.

The interesting news of this week is that the Electronic Patient Administration System, crashed across  most of the major hospitals in the State. Fortunately no patients were at risk during the 10 hour crash ( this time) but doctors and medical staff have been complaining about the system (American)  that’it’s clunky. chunky and slow. Not only that but in the new, much vaunted, third most expensive building on the planet, plagued by constant delays. running over budget, New Royal Adelaide Hospital, the builders and designers never included any provisions for storing patient records – all of which will have to be stored off-site.  Ah, the joys of living in South Australia.

Hospitals,clinics and Sturt’s Desert Pea.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Masses of flowers!
Masses of flowers!

I do not have Wallabies and Kangaroos in my garden. I do have two dogs and the occasional wandering cat, which sits high on a fence and teases the dogs.  I’m not a cat person, but she/he is a lovely creature.

This week I head back down to Adelaide again. This will be – at least – one overnight stay, however, there is a possibility that it could be two, depending on how the meeting goes on Saturday. At this time of the year I will not make the long drive back home in the dark. The further north you go the more chance there is of wildlife on the road. If you hit a Kangaroo  the damage to an ordinary vehicle would be extensive – perhaps not quite so bad in a Jeep, but still cost a dollar or three to get the repairs done. I was told that there is a device you can fit on the front of the vehicle that will deter a kangaroo from coming near you – emits a high frequency noise – or something. Must look into that.

As expected the meeting went on until late in the afternoon and it was almost 5pm before I got back to the hotel. Fortunately they did have a room for me. There were some very contentious issues that were not entirely resolved and will have to be dealt with again at the next regular meeting in October. The space between will give people time to reflect on these issuses and, hopefully, come up with solutions. I arrived home Sunday afternoon and on Monday I was called into work – something I could really have done without.  On Thursday I head off again to Royal Adelaide Hospital and take herself for tests. Not looking forward to this because she is not a good traveller and the tests will tire her, so even although the hotel is nice, she will be glad to get back home.

Once back home I have to organise a fundraising event for the RFDS this Saturday. I think I have rostered myself on for that one and provided everything is ok, it should not be a problem. If it were summer I would be back home tomorrow night, since it would have been light until about 9:30pm.

20130809_122208
Always something new at David Jones

Anyway I kind of feel like John Denver ” All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go” and  we take off shortly for the RAH. Her first appointment is not until 12:45 so that gives us enough time to get down there and get parked and make our way to the clinic. Depending on how she feels at the end of the day, we might have time to go into town for a little while. My son is staying here for a few days to look after the dogs.